Enrollments low for health exchanges

Only 106,185 people nationwide signed up for health care policies in the first month of enrollment under Obamacare, the government announced Tuesday. And only 26,794 of those came from the federal exchanges that are selling coverage in 36 states.

In California, 35,364 people enrolled in health plans through the end of October, a number also short of projections.

The sign-up rate was anemic enough to cause worries about the survival of the president’s signature piece of legislation, the Affordable Care Act, which mandates that most Americans have health coverage by early 2014.

The White House worked to reassure Democrats who are worried about the controversial program, which they voted into existence three years ago. The administration for the first time indicated a willingness to consider legislation to stave off the wave of cancellations that’s compounding technology problems plaguing the website.

Some Democrats are seeking changes, and key Republicans, many pressing for repeal, said that even Wednesday’s feeble sign-up figures appeared to be pumped up. The final number would be even smaller if it counted only those who finalized their enrollment by actually paying their first month’s premium, Republicans said.

Administration officials and senior congressional Democrats expressed confidence in the program’s future. “We expect enrollment will grow substantially throughout the next five months,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

“Even with the issues we’ve had, the marketplace is working and people are enrolling,” Sebelius said. Responding to GOP critics, she said the first premiums are not due until Dec. 15.

In releasing its figures on Wednesday, Covered California, the state’s health insurance exchange, said October’s results showed an average of 994 enrollments per day.

Peter Lee, the exchange’s executive director, also said that Covered California enrolled an additional 29,000 people in the first 12 days of November, a rate of about 2,400 per day.

The exchange is projecting that between 500,000 and 700,000 Californians will have enrolled by March 31, 2014, the last day of its six-month open enrollment period. To reach those projections, the exchange would have to average between 2,739 and 3,835 enrollments per day.

During a Sacramento news conference Wednesday afternoon, Lee was bullish about the prospects for Californians signing up as the new year draws nearer.

“I think we can bowl through those forecasts, and I hope we do,” Lee said.

Enrollment was not the only Obamacare issue under the microscope Wednesday.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, used the recent scandal over canceled policies to throw the newly released enrollment numbers into high contrast.

“The 27,000 enrollments through (the) federally facilitated exchange pale in comparison to the millions of Americans who have lost their health insurance under Obamacare,” Issa said.

Earlier Wednesday, Issa, as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, conducted a hearing on a long list of problems that have plagued the federal exchange: insufficient testing, possible security flaws, design shortcomings — even allegations of political meddling.

What is now becoming known as the president’s broken promise, that Americans who had health policies would get to keep them, continued to gain steam in Washington.

Obama has said he’s sorry that people are losing their coverage and has vowed to find ways to address “holes and gaps” in the law. Advisers originally said the White House was considering administrative fixes, not legislative options.

On Wednesday, Obama spokesman Jay Carney said, “If we can achieve this administratively, we will certainly look at that possibility,” but he added that the White House was also considering legislative ideas.

Republicans, meanwhile, are holding hearings to keep the overhaul’s problems in the spotlight ahead of an election year.

“It’s kind of interesting to see as Obamacare implodes how everybody’s running for cover,” said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla. And Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said, “Obviously, panic has set in on the other side.”

The drama in Washington was not the focus of local organizations that have been trying for more than a month to get people to enroll in Covered California policies.

Jan Spencley, the executive director of San Diegans for Health Care Coverage, a nonprofit that focuses on health outreach and education, said she believed the low numbers were due to an initial lack of trained enrollment workers and to the public’s desire to mull over its options before making a decision.

Overall, she said, her organization has seen plenty of interest from the public despite low enrollment numbers.

“People are actually shopping. There is an incredible amount of interest, but people really want to understand everything better before they enroll,” Spencley said.

Gary Rotto, director of health policy for the San Diego Council of Community Clinics, said he is encouraged by the 2.4 million unique visits the exchange’s website got in October.

“That number shows that people are interested and they’re looking. I don’t think anyone expected, in the first month, for all of them to rush in and sign up all at once,” Rotto said.

The administration has staked its credibility on turning the website around by the end of this month. From the president on down, officials have said that HealthCare.gov will be running smoothly for the vast majority of users by Nov. 30. They have not specified what “running smoothly” means.